After the hearing he said: 'I am disappointed but not really surprised.'

Fielder-Civil, and Brown, of Carshalton, Surrey, admitted causing grievous bodily harm and perverting the course of justice. Brown was sentenced to 33 months in prison.

Sentencing Fielder-Civil to a total of 27 months on July 21, Judge David Radford said he had behaved in a 'gratuitous, cowardly and disgraceful way' by kicking Mr King, 36, when he was lying prone.

At the Court of Appeal today, Fielder-Civil's counsel, Jeremy Dein QC, argued before Mr Justice Pitchford, sitting with the Recorder of Brighton and Hove, Judge Richard Brown, that the 27 months was 'manifestly excessive' and should have been no more than 21 months.

No show: Amy Winehouse, pictured here outside her North London home earlier this week, didn't appear at the court hearing

Mr Dein said there were 'very powerful' factors of personal mitigation in the case.

He told the judges that Fielder-Civil, a man of previous good character, but with a 'long and wretched history of involvement with drugs and alcohol', suffered a 'great ordeal while incarcerated for the first time' in Pentonville Prison on remand.

Mr Dein said: 'He was often taunted, his mail was leaked to the press. He had wedding photographs stolen very soon after his arrival.'

He arrived at prison 'bedevilled by an addiction to drugs'.

Counsel said: 'He was in a life-threatening state when he got there.'

What happened to him in prison sent him 'spiralling into deep depression'.

But it was clear that he had since made 'almost superhuman efforts' to rehabilitate himself and was 'determined to beat' his addiction.

The court heard that the only condition of his release from prison was his residence at the Life Works rehab unit near Woking, Surrey.

Giving the ruling of the court, Mr Justice Pitchford said that one of the factors of mitigation put forward was 'the unwanted attention the appellant had received while in custody on remand as a consequence of his marriage to the singer Amy Winehouse.

'He sought, and was granted, segregation from the general population of the prison.'

But the appeal court ruled that Fielder-Civil had no 'justified complaint' about his sentence.

After announcing the dismissal of the appeal, Mr Justice Pitchford said: 'However, we will not leave the appeal without expressing encouragement to the appellant to continue with the progress that he has made in the short time between November 5 and today's hearing, since it is only if these attempts are successful that he has a worthwhile future.'

Mr King suffered a broken cheekbone and was so badly beaten that he needed metal plates fitted to his face.

He pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice by allegedly joining in the cover-up and was cleared at his trial earlier this year.

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Blake Fielder-Civil loses High Court appeal... but still no sign of wife Amy Winehouse